Research Grant

1. Every year the Belgian Association of Regional Anaesthesia (BARA) will award one or more research grants at the Annual Meeting to be held in October or November. Deadline for submitting proposals is July 31st. Proposals sent in after this date will be judged the year after.

2. The purpose is to support research related to regional anaesthesia in Belgium. This research could be clinical, epidemiological or related to basic science. Essential is however that it is related to regional anaesthesia. Research grants are derived from BARA resources or could be derived from contributions made by philanthropists and industry to the BARA. If the resources are derived from industry or philanthropists, research grants can carry their name.

3. The applicant seeking such support must be a member of the BARA at the time of application and during the tenure of a research grant. A recipient of any previous research grant is ineligible to apply for another grant for a period of one year from start date of the previous grant. Active members of the Research Advisory Committee are ineligible to apply as a principal investigator during their term.

4. The research for which financial support is solicited must be relevant to the practice or theory of regional anaesthesia. The project must be carried out in Belgium or by a Belgian investigator working outside Belgium or by a BARA member.

5. An annual competition will be held for one or more research grants. The number of grants and the size of each grant is determined by the jury which consists out of 6 BARA board members. Half of this amount will be paid at the start of the project and the other half after publication of the research results in an international peer reviewed journal, provided the research grant and the BARA are mentioned in the paper. Acknowledgment of the BARA should be done using the following phrase: “The authors wish to thank the Belgian Association of Regional Anesthesia (BARA) for their support. The present study was performed using a BARA research grant for regional anesthesia with number …...”

6. Applications are invited from researchers who may be at any stage of career development.

7. The term of the research grant will normally be one year starting January 1st after the award to December 31th of that year and is not renewable.

8. Each research grant is to be used to defray the direct costs of research up to its total value and may not be used for indirect costs (overhead) or for travel. Any commitments or expenditures incurred by a researcher in excess of the allocated research grant are the responsibility of the researcher alone and will not be reimbursed.

9. The employment of technicians and research assistants under such a research grant must conform to the institutional classification and requirements for such personnel. The BARA cannot be held responsible for covering the salaries and insurance of such personnel.

10. The use of and care for animals in any project supported by a research grant must be in accordance with the international guidelines on animal research. The involvement and recruitment of human subjects must conform to current guidelines, such as the Code of Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans, and the Declaration of Helsinki. A document indicating institutional review and approval of animal and/or human experimentation must be submitted prior to disbursement of any funds. All studies involving both human and animal study subjects must be performed according to European Union directives, regulation and guidelines.

11. The completed application form, and the completed application checklist (together constituting an application package), must reach the BARA president no later than July 31st of each year, preferably by e-mail. Copies should be send to the treasurer, secretary and vice-president, preferably by e-mail. It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure that all sections of the application form are completed in a clear and concise manner, the requisite number of copies of all materials are provided, and that the application package reaches the BARA treasurer before the deadline. Documentation of institutional approval for human and/or animal experimentation, where applicable, must be submitted either with the application package or at the latest before February 1st following the year of submission. Applications that fail to fulfil these conditions will not be considered.

12. Receipt of the application will be acknowledged by mail or e-mail.

13. The competition for research grants will be judged by a BARA Research Committee on the basis of scientific merit, significance and feasibility. The applications will be ranked and depending on the number of available grants for that year, grants will be awarded according to this ranking. The remarks of the committee for his category will be sent to the applicant. Based on the ranking performed by the Committee, the BARA board will award the grants during their meeting in October. If an application fails to achieve the grant(s), the project can be proposed on a later date if the authors desire to do so. If all research proposals are deemed of insufficient quality, the BARA board reserves the right not to award the grant that year.

14. If two projects are both valuable and considered of similar quality by the BARA Research Committee, the BARA board can decide to award two grants each for halve of the initial size of the grant.

15. Winners of grants are awarded with the grant during the BARA annual meeting.

16. The recipient of a grant will be required to document his/her research by submitting progress reports six months (i.e., by July 1st) after the commencement of the grant and no later than six months following completion of the term of the award (June 30th ). The reports must be sent to the treasurer of the BARA

17. The recipient of a BARA research grant will be required to notify the BARA treasurer if, for any reason, he/she is unable to complete the project for which the grant was awarded.The total sum of granted money must be reimbursed to the BARA.

18. The completed application package should be sent to the President and copies to the vice-president, treasurer and secretary using e-mail (addresses are posted on the website: www.bara2001.be).